Currently, the way modern operating systems handle the problem of the conflicting demands of latency and overhead, is with two settings. With one setting the hardware is set to coalesce the data at a set frequency (controlled by network interface controller hardware) to minimize latency. In the other setting the hardware's interrupts are disabled, and software polls on a frequency driven by the operating system's tick. The continuum of scenarios between the extremes is left unaddressed. The timer mechanism works optimally when there is heavy and constant traffic or there is little concern about the response time to new work. The problem lies in scenarios where there is a dribble of traffic and/or the respond time is critical. Since the introduction of network interface controller hardware, there has been an issue due to the conflicting demands of reducing latency and reducing overhead. Various approaches have been used, each with their own drawbacks.
What is needed is an approach that uses software to control the timer hardware as driven by system idle CPU time to reduce latency and overhead as dictated by system needs.